


Today

by starlight_and_seafire



Series: Variations on a Theme [2]
Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Developing Relationship, F/M, Fluff, Force Tree, Friends to Lovers, Post-Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, Yavin IV
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-07
Updated: 2020-05-07
Packaged: 2021-03-02 19:27:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,278
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24062095
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starlight_and_seafire/pseuds/starlight_and_seafire
Summary: In the aftermath of the Battle of Exegol, Rey searches for her path forward.That path leads her to Yavin IV, to the Force Tree, but most of all, it leads her to Poe.
Relationships: Poe Dameron/Rey
Series: Variations on a Theme [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1579810
Comments: 16
Kudos: 90





	Today

“Jannah’s going to go with Lando,” Finn says quietly, the sound almost drowned out by the celebration. He clears his throat, and his next words are firmer, more confident. “And I’m going to go with them.”

Rey looks at him, her face twisted in confusion. _Maybe she heard Finn wrong?_ But when her eyes dart over to Poe, he’s frozen in place, his cup halfway to his lips, looking as shocked as she feels.

It’s barely been a week since the end of the war, but it feels like a world of changes have occurred since then. At first, when they had returned from Exegol, battered and bruised but not beaten — _definitely not beaten, no, not when she could sense their living, beating hearts, the tears they shed landing on her shoulders, their warmth as she pressed close, cause they’re alive, they’re all alive_ — everything had slowed down, and she felt peaceful as they held each other close.

And in the week since, it seems like they’ve rarely been more than a few feet away from each other. Together, they go to meetings to discuss next steps, to figure out the reformation of the government. Together, they realize that none of them really want to be involved in that top layer of government, and Rey _really_ doesn’t, not when she’s got the future of the Jedi and all that encompasses to figure out. They even go to the medical bay together to get checked out, Poe waving off her attempts to heal his arm wound while she just stands there, confused, when he and Finn exchange some long, indecipherable look.

In that week, amongst all those changes, they stand beside each other, eat meals together, food and drink easily shared between the three, and talk into the late evening hours. And it is then, in one of those late evenings, sitting off to the side of one of the common rooms while many of the other Resistance soldiers continue the party around the base, that Finn tells them he wants to go with Jannah and Lando.

“That’s where I need to be. At least for now,” he says, as he swirls his drink contemplatively. “Jannah wants to look for her family, to find where she comes from, and I think that maybe I want to do the same. But I definitely want to help the other stormtroopers find where they come from.”

As Rey stares at him, shocked, maybe even a little hurt, her heart aching in her chest at the idea of them being apart, he clasps her hand in his and squeezes. “I’ll always come back to you,” he says. “You’re my home. My family. You both are.”

She squeezes back, because he is her home, too. They’re her family. She listens as Finn tells them more about Lando and Jannah’s ideas and the sheer scope of the search. There are so many stolen children, so many unknowns, that it’s almost impossible to figure out where to begin. But they have a place to start their search, at least, and for now, this is the path Finn needs to take.

“What about you two?” Finn asks, when their questioning comes to an end.

Rey’s grateful when Poe speaks up first.

“I think I’m going home. Back to Yavin IV,” he says, his eyes growing dreamy as he chases some memory from long ago. “There was a time when I couldn’t wait to get away,” and he laughs then, a shaky thing, and Rey knows it probably has to do with his time smuggling spice, instinctively knows there’s more to the story there, even as a tinge of shame settles over his face. Poe clears his throat. “And it took me awhile, but then I was able to go home, and it was — it was everything.”

This time it’s Poe’s turn to gaze contemplatively into his cup, the silence stretching uninterrupted between the three, as they know Poe’s not done with his story yet. “Back then, I knew there was something more I had to do. I belonged to the stars, and from what I learned from my parents’ time in the Rebellion, I knew I had to serve. But now? Now I just want to go home. Smell the soil and the koyo, let the air sink into my skin, the sun warm my bones. See my pa again.” Poe’s eyes close, a soft, gentle smile blossoming on his face, as he gets caught up in his memories of home.

“What’s it like there?” Finn asks.

Poe’s eyes open, and, his smile turning bright, tells them. He’s already told them stories of Kes and Shara Bey, his love for them evident in all the ways he tries to honor them. And now he tells them of the house Kes and Shara Bey had built, of the ranch and the ripe fields of koyo melons basking in the sun, the woolamanders and whisper birds, the summer storms and the humid, late evening air, and all the green, teeming life. Then he tells them of the Force Tree, how Shara Bey had brought it home after an adventure with Luke Skywalker, and how he had tended it through the years when she couldn’t. He tells them there’s no better, more peaceful spot in the galaxy.

Finn’s smiling as Poe’s story comes to an end, but then his expression turns thoughtful once more as he turns to Rey. “And what about you?”

Rey’s so enthralled by the idea of Yavin IV, especially of the Force Tree, and something else, something tugging at the corner of Rey’s consciousness, that she almost misses the question, doesn’t quite understand it at first. “What about me?”

“What do you plan to do now?”

The future is not something Rey’s ever spent much time thinking about. She never did before the war, and now? Now she knows there’s a few things she has to do first, before she can really consider what to do next. “I need to search for my kyber crystal first,” she says. “And then finish building my lightsaber. Then I think I need to go to Tatooine, lay Luke and Leia to rest. But after?” She shrugs. She doesn’t know the answer, not yet.

“You could come to Yavin IV,” Poe says, his voice strangely shy. Then he clears his throat, a rough sound compared to the previous softness of his voice. “You both could. For however long you like.” There’s a beat of silence, and then another, before Poe says, “You’re both my family.”

They exchange soft smiles at that, all of them basking in the feeling of belonging. But even as the conversation starts to veer back into less contemplative territory, the question of what’s next lingers at the front of Rey’s mind, even as something else, something unnamable, seems to be lingering just beneath the surface.

***

She tilts her face up, letting the binary suns warm her face. She grew up in the desert. The dry, rough heat is familiar. But after those many months on Ajan Kloss, it no longer feels right, not anymore.

She wonders when that changed.

BB-8 beeps a question up at her. “Just thinking,” she tells him. “About home, I guess. My family.” A pause, and then, “I miss Finn and Poe.”

BB-8 chirps in agreement, and she smiles fondly down at the droid.

When she had been packing up her belongings before heading on her journey, Poe had stopped by her ship, an eager BB-8 and D-O trailing behind him.

“You don’t have to go alone,” he had told her.

She had already told him she wanted — needed, really — to do this by herself, not in some misguided belief that she _had_ to do it alone, but just because she needed some space to think.

She thought he had understood, and was about to interrupt him to protest, but he just held up a placating hand, and continued. “I know you needed some space from other people. But maybe you’ll think about bringing Beebee along?”

And following BB-8’s chirp, Poe added, “And D-O, too. They’re a package deal, after all.”

She stared at Poe for a long moment. BB-8 was his droid, and while BB-8 had been keeping her company more and more often, especially in recent months, she thought for sure that BB-8 and Poe would be spending more time together now.

And then she understood. She might not want people along, but Poe didn’t want her to feel lonely or isolated. He wanted someone to look out for her. It was . . . sweet.

As a smile bloomed on her face, she indicated with a tilt of her head that the droids could go on ahead up the ramp.

Poe’s answering smile was blinding.

As they were saying their goodbyes, he had once again invited her to stop by Yavin IV after her journey to Tatooine. “There’s plenty of room if you want to stay awhile,” he had said, looking strangely nervous once again. It was not an expression she was used to seeing on the man. “Besides, my dad would love to meet you — both of you really,” he had corrected with just a hint of a stutter. “And the Force Tree is pretty cool, too.”

She smiled and told him she would think about it. She didn’t know much about the path before her yet, and she hated to make any promises while she was still trying to figure things out.

But she did agree to keep in touch while on her journey and promised him that she wouldn’t keep BB-8 away from him too long.

“I know,” he replied. And then, he had opened his arms and she stepped forward, pressing herself close as he wrapped his arms around her.

It had been almost two months since that day.

She missed him. They had been keeping in touch during her journey, as she had been doing with Finn. But while Finn had been planet-hopping with Lando and Jannah and other crewmembers in search of the stormtroopers lost families, Poe had returned home. Home with his father, catching up on old times.

When she first left Ajan Kloss, she thought she might find some answers during her search for her kyber crystal, or maybe even on Tatooine.

But the only conclusion she had come to was that she didn’t need to figure out the future of the Jedi or how to rebuild them just yet.

She has time. Time stretches out endlessly before her. That’s not the problem.

She thinks maybe she’s missing the foundation of it all. Someplace firm, constant, steady. Someplace where she can grow, where she can grow the Jedi.

She thinks of Poe telling her about Yavin IV, a place with so much green and growing life, not to mention the Force Tree, which at times she thinks she’s seen in her dreams, its song singing sweetly to her as she sleeps.

She thinks of Poe telling her about the local village made up of Rebellion veterans looking for a place to take root after the Empire fell and freedom came, of the home his parents had made, of the place he calls home.

She thinks of the way he had invited both her and Finn to come to Yavin IV, to stay as long as they like, because they’re family. She thinks of the way he let BB-8, and by consequence D-O, come with her so she wouldn’t be alone. She thinks of the way she and Poe bickered but always, always with a purpose, pushing and pulling each other to be better, the way he always supported and cared for her. She thinks of the way he had extended that invitation to his home to her a second time, in the shadows of her ship, his smile bright, his eyes warm and soft. She thinks of the way the Force sings through him so sweetly. She thinks of the Force Tree, and wonders if it would make that same sweet song.

She wonders if Yavin IV might be a place where she could take root, where she could grow. Something tells her it just might be.

Besides, she promised Poe she wouldn’t keep BB-8 away from him too long.

She glances down at the little droid who rests quietly beside her. “You ready to go home, Beebee?”

His squeal of delight was all she needed to hear and together they returned to the ship where D-O awaited their return.

Within minutes they were away.

She doesn’t need to know exactly what to do with her future yet. She’s got time. But for now, she thinks of a place that might give her a good foundation, and someone to lean on, to stand by her side, while she figures it out.

***

She lands her ship in a clearing next to an older model A-wing, the ranch house visible across the field. She disembarks with BB-8 and D-O hot on her heels.

“It’s alright, Beebee,” she says, smiling fondly down to the larger of the two droids. “You don’t have to wait for me.”

BB-8 hoots in excitement before hurtling himself towards the house.

She follows at a more sedate place, an inquisitive eye noting that the A-wing seems to be in the middle of repairs, the person responsible probably momentarily stepping away for a break.

She sees a panel on its side open, wires exposed, as she walks past. She’s never worked on an A-wing before. She would love to get her hands inside of it.

The clamor of excited beeping distracts her from further perusal of the ship, and she looks up and sees Poe in the open doorway of the ranch house, wiping his hands clean on a rag even as he hurries down the front steps to greet them.

She might have quickened her pace seeing him too, walking up to him as he kneels before BB-8, his fingers scratching at the droid’s belly, eagerly listening to the droid update him on everything that he’s missed in the last few months since Rey had first left to make her lightsaber and to say goodbye to Luke and Leia.

Poe’s sweaty, tired in the way that only comes from hard work, but his face looks so absolutely delighted to see her, a dazzling smile alighting his face, that she can’t resist beaming right back at him.

“It’s good to see you again,” he says as he stands, his arms twitching in the faintest of movements before resting at his side once more. “I missed you.”

She thinks that maybe he wanted to hug her. And she had missed him too. So, she steps forward, opening her arms, and within a moment, they’re clasped tight together.

She’s grinning as they part, the two droids beeping happily besides their feet (or at least one droid beeping happily, the other still a little more sedate while he slowly grows more comfortable in the presence of others) and Poe’s returning her smile, when suddenly, anxiety takes root in the pit of her stomach and —

“What is it?” Poe asks, brow furrowing.

“Maybe I should have comm’ed first, to ask if your offer still stands . . .” she replies hesitantly, suddenly worried that she has overstepped. She’s still so unused to people, to proper socialization.

“My home is your home,” he says, even as a faint redness tinges the tops of his cheekbones. “For as long as you like. I can show you to the extra bedroom, if you want to stay in the house.”

She nods excitedly, and Poe just laughs in pleasure. “Great! I can help you with your things, but first I was hoping — well, there’s someone I would like you to meet.”

She nods again, and he smiles as he reaches out to squeeze her hand. The feeling of belonging washes over her once more, and now there’s something else there too, the feeling of so much possibility stretched out before her, and she follows him inside.

***

“You really oughta take a break now and then.”

She throws a look over her shoulder at Poe, who’s reclining against the doorframe. He’s relaxed, barefoot in the house. Even his curls look more casual and rumpled than usual.

She huffs a little. “I do. Of course I do.” She just doesn’t tell him exactly when those breaks have occurred, because if she’s being honest with herself, she doesn’t really recall.

But she doesn’t want to let him know that. Not when he’s looking all content and peaceful having spent the morning and early afternoon relaxing around the house, while she’s been training and poring over the Jedi texts, trying to figure out how best to start the new Jedi Order, like she has for the last few weeks since she had first arrived at the ranch.

How did they even start the Jedi Order in the first place? How did Luke when he restarted it?

“Sure,” Poe grins, his face disbelieving, and she just throws him another look.

BB-8, on the other hand, sitting in the corner of the room where he and D-O have been keeping her company while she’s been doing her research, emits a series of beeps.

She just glares at the droid as he gives her up, calculating the precise amount of time that she’s spent relaxing, which was considerably less than she had even guessed.

Of course, she can’t stay angry for long at BB-8, and she rubs his belly affectionately as he comes over to her burbling about the body and mind’s need for rest and relaxation.

So that’s how Poe ends up showing her the best hiking trails around his father’s ranch. He leads her down long winding trails throughout the jungle, the dappled sunlight shining through the trees dazzling her eyes, the chirps of the woolamanders and cries of the whisper birds delighting her ears.

Yavin IV reminds her a lot of Ajan Kloss, with all the plants and wildlife and warm, humid, sweet-smelling air. But unlike her time on Ajan Kloss, which she had spent training and working, the time spent walking the paths with Poe causes something to loosen in her shoulders and the tension in her jaw to abate.

But when the sun begins to descend, she remembers the questions that had preoccupied her earlier, and tells him, “I should get back.”

He shrugs, and with a smile leads them back. It’s only when she’s about to reenter the little study set aside for her, that she gives him yet another look over her shoulder, only this time, she grins at him and says, “I had a great time. Thank you for showing me that, Poe.”

He just shrugs again, the movement almost a little self-conscious. “You deserve to take some time for yourself. If anyone deserves a chance to relax, it’s you.”

She smiles at him one last time, and he returns it, before she settles back into her chair.

For all that it feels like the weight of the galaxy rests upon her shoulders recently, it feels a little lighter now.

***

A few evenings later and Poe’s leaning against the doorjamb again, BB-8 giving a happy chirp as he sees his friend.

“How do you feel about letting me and dad kick your ass at some board games this evening?” he asks, grinning when she arches her eyebrow in his direction.

There’s a part of her that wants to keep working, but then there’s Poe with his smug smile, and BB-8 and even D-O whirling excitedly, so she stands, and says, “As long as you two promise not to whine when I wipe the floor with you both.”

Poe just laughs, the sound reverberating down the hallway.

***

A few months into her arrival, in the crisp, early spring air, he cajoles her out of her study and takes her out on his speeder, driving a good distance away from the ranch before stopping. He leads them down a long trail, clambering over the rocky path and over a few small hills. She hears a gentle, rhythmic sound that only gets louder as they finish climbing the last embankment and then she gasps, her breath leaving her, as she sees the waterfall, a dazzling array of colors being refracted off its droplets, the almost musical sound of the rushing water hitting the rocks and water below filling her ears.

“This is what you had to show me?” she asks, almost two hours after he had first appeared in the study, eager for her to take a break so he could show her “something important.”

“Yep,” he says, smiling at her. “What do you think?”

It’s amazing. It’s spectacular. There are absolutely no words for this.

So she just says, “Thank you, Poe.”

She doesn’t know how long she stands there, but she lets her eyes fall closed and tilts her head up to the sun as the sound of the waterfall rushes over her, Poe standing, warm and steady, by her side. She feels at peace, totally and completely, in a way she hasn’t been in a long, long time . . . maybe even ever. She thinks that’s why she tells him, her voice soft, “I’m afraid of letting Luke and Leia down.”

“I know,” he says, and then, “You could never.” Unlike hers, his voice is firm, certain. As if there is no other possible answer than the one he gives her.

This time, she reaches out and takes his hand, feels him squeeze her hand gently, and she hangs on.

***

In the weeks and months that follow her arrival on Yavin IV, she finds plates of cookies on her desk next to her books when she returns from those brief moments she steps away. She finds fresh cut koyo melon sitting in a container in the fridge, a label with her name on it resting atop it, when she comes in tired and sweaty from training, desperate for a little refreshment. Poe shows her numerous trails through the forests, little hideaways around the ranch, the little swimming hole down a long curving path from the house. He takes her to the numerous festivals the small village nearby throws to celebrate the harvest, the changing of the seasons, celebrations for anything and everything just because they’re alive and all together, and she adores all the revelry. He teaches her how to bake, and gives her space out behind the house to plant her own garden and shows her the best seeds to use in the Yavin IV soil. Occasionally he builds a fire out back, and together with his father and the droids they sit around and tell stories in the flickering light.

Her favorite thing that he’s shown her though is the Force Tree. He had brought her to it soon after she had arrived, his eagerness evident in every word he said, in every line of his face, as he led her down the path to it.

The tree, with its strong roots and ethereal blue-green glow, has become one of her favorite places on the planet, outside of the ranch house in the late evening hours when its filled with warmth and the savory scents of dinner, her and Poe and Kes sitting around the kitchen table with her two favorite droids.

Poe has seen her toiling away, frustrated and eager in equal measure, to try to make some sense of the future of the Jedi. But when she grows too frustrated, too anxious, fear growing cold in her stomach, he draws her away, helps her relax, to grow calm once more, as if he instinctively senses when she needs a break. He shows her more and more of Yavin IV, all the magical, wonderous ways that the planet could get under someone’s skin, all the ways it’s home for him, and she thinks it’s starting to feel like home for her as well.

But more than that, there’s something else too, something that fills her with warmth and affection and —

During the war, there was an initial infatuation. Poe was attractive, someone with the same interests and, in many ways, same motivations as her. He was someone who would challenge her, someone she could bicker with, to unload all the terrible, terrifying tension of war with as they bantered.

But now, now it was growing. Growing into something deeper, something sweeter, something _more_.

She loves him.

She loves the way he cares for her, shows her how to relax, to take time for herself when she’s really never had much chance to do so before. She loves the way he smiles at her, listens to her, understands her, makes the weight of the galaxy feel a little lighter when he’s standing beside her. She loves the way he’s so kind, so good, the light singing sweetly through him, the same light that sings through the Force Tree and its strong, sturdy roots and its sheltering branches.

Where life had once been so hard, now she’s found something soft.

She thinks the Force has asked enough of her in her lifetime that it can wait a little longer. She can leave all this Force and destiny stuff, the plans to rebuild the Jedi, to train the next generation of Force users, for tomorrow.

Today, though — today, she takes Poe’s hand and leads him to the Force Tree. There, in its blue-green glow, she kisses him for the first time.

Today, she can rest. Today, she can love and be loved.

When they part, Poe rests his forehead against hers, clasps her hands tightly in his, and she knows that today, she’s finally home.


End file.
